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August 18, 2009

US Vogue- the Age Issue

Irving Penn for US Vogue's August 2009 issue

US Vogue does it's annual Age Issue in August, traditionally the most difficult month to sell the magazine due to everyone waiting for the big September fashion issue. Still, beggers can't be choosers and we're grateful for the attention once a year.

Usually I love US Vogue for the features (especially Jeffrey Steingarten and Sally SInger) but despite Nora Ephron talking about her new film Julie/Julia and Christy Turlington being interviewed for her work with maternal deaths in under developed countries, it's a bit dull this time around. I think the reason for this might be that I'm absorbing so much information on a daily basis about fashion, age and opinion from blogs and faster paced websites that the 'New!' element that Vogue once essentially supplied is now almost missing from the mag experience.

It sheds no new light at all about how to dress better with age, it's all stuff we've heard before. Vogue's Point of View this month tells us "It's never been more true that you are only as old as you feel" and "You don't have to resign yourself to a life of tastefully restrained suits the minute you pass 35". Thanks, but we figured that out by ourselves a while ago.

It's not too friendly on age this month either, with the above picture of sliced, blackened bananas by Irving Penn illustrating a feature called She's Come Undone, about how the signs of aging can go well beyond wrinkles ( the bananas represent the dark spots that freckle ageing skin). I mean, great photo, but sorta grim, eh? Who wants to be compared to a rotting banana?